The disclosure relates to optical fiber, and more particularly to single mode optical fibers which have large effective area and low bend loss at 1550 nm. Large effective optical fibers are attractive for long-haul telecommunication systems because they enable higher power signals to be used without increasing nonlinear effects such as self-phase modulation, four wave mixing and cross phase modulation. The higher signal power allows longer span lengths between costly repeaters and reduces the installed cost of the system. On the other hand, an increase in effective area of an optical waveguide fiber typically results in an increase in macrobending induced losses which attenuate signal transmission through a fiber. The macrobending losses become increasingly significant over long (e.g., 100 km, or more) distances (or spacing between regenerators, amplifiers, transmitters and/or receivers. Unfortunately, the larger the effective area of a conventional optical fiber is, the higher the macrobend induced losses tend to be.